United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization

The Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE) is a programme of action
in support of the achievement of Education for All and a key operational
mechanism to increase literacy learning opportunities within the framework
of the United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD).

The LIFE initiative will be implemented in 35 countries with literacy rates
of less than fifty percent or a population of more than 10 million persons
without literacy competencies. Currently, 85% of the world population
without literacy competencies and skills lives in these 35 countries. The
majority of them are girls and women.

In Asia and the Pacific, the nine (9) countries participating in the LIFE initiative
are: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan
and Papua New Guinea. These countries undertook preparatory work during
2005 to produce their respective Country Profiles, which cover literacy status,
policies, strategies and practices.

The Asia-Pacific Regional Planning Meeting on LIFE was organized by
UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in close co-operation
with UNESCO’s Islamabad Office and UNESCO Headquarters. The Meeting
was held at the Holiday Inn Hotel, Islamabad, Pakistan, from March 20-22,
2006. The purpose of the meeting was to assist LIFE countries with the
organization of preparatory activities for implementing the LIFE initiative.

Considering the present situation of Bangladeshi young women, the Department of Women Affairs have organized various types of vocational livelihood skill training and life skill training for disadvantaged young women in the rural areas of Bangladesh. The main objectives of these initiatives were to empower rural young women and to involve them in income generating activities. There was shortage of any approved guideline of literacy, life skill and livelihood training. National Plan of Action II proposes to develop training manual to be used as a handbook for the District Women Affairs Officers to conduct community based literacy, life skills and livelihood skill training of disadvantaged young adult girls as well as women. UNESCO provided financial support to develop a sustainable standard training strategy with effective curriculum to cope with all other training institution is the main aim to prepare a training guideline or manual.

This project has been implemented by ASHRAI to create social awareness and initiate actions to protect tribal rights in the targeted project sites/community. Components of the project were to conduct literacy activities for adolescents of the tribal communities and needs based vocational livelihood skills training, to establish network, coordination and partnership development with the government, NGO, INGO for tribal issues, and to promote establishing CLCs to function as a resource centre. The aim of this project is also to facilitate adolescents and women to find means and ways for theie sustainable developments.